One aspect of gaming machine operation is proper configuration of the gaming machine. Gaming machine configuration may include the assignment of various gaming machine settings to control aspects of game play. The machine settings may include but are not limited to payout limits, accrued winning amounts before automatic payout, hopper limits, pay tables and pay rates, machine denomination, single winning event jackpot limits and game theme settings. In some jurisdictions certain machine settings are closely regulated and the jurisdiction may require that the machine settings be adjusted depending on various factors such as the location of the machine, the time of day, or the day of the week.
In the prior art, the appropriate or desired machine settings were logged in hardcopy form in a binder or folio. Using a hardcopy report of the appropriate machine settings a technician would physically locate a machine and manually enter, i.e., set up, the machine settings.
To enter the data, gaming machines of the prior art often included a touch-screen or other similar user interface for the technician to gain access to the machine and configure the machine settings. Access to the gaming machine, which is a high security issue, may be granted through use of complex technician-entered pass codes or expensive and fragile security chips or hardware. The machine-accessible configuration undesirably creates a necessity for security measures that are complex and expensive to implement.
As can be understood the process of manually configuring a machine's settings via a touch screen interface are a time consuming and tedious operation. The technician must continually refer to the hardcopy binder that contains the machine settings and enter each setting via a touch screen. If configuration occurs via a touch screen, then a further drawback is that the gaming machine must include a touch screen enabled software interface that allows the technician to control machine settings. In addition, during the time consuming machine setup operation the game is not in play and hence potential gaming revenues are lost. In other embodiments a machine's buttons may be used. This results in configuration becoming a very time consuming operation since there a limited number of buttons on a machine.
As a result of the above-described drawbacks in gaming machine set-up or configuration, there is a need for an efficient way to establish gaming machine settings. The method and apparatus described herein provides an efficient way to determine current gaming machine settings. Also described herein is a method and apparatus to achieve compatibility between different various gaming platforms, operating systems and network protocols.